Politics
Mia Love looking to be first black Republican congresswoman
Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love speaks at the Republican state convention, Saturday, April 21, 2012 in Sandy, Utah. PHOTO/Leah Hogsten/The Salt Lake Tribune/AP Photo
Amid the crowded field of House candidates across the country in 2012, expect to hear a lot about Saratoga Springs Mayor Mia Love, a Republican who is an African American and a Mormon and who on Saturday defeated a handful of rivals to clinch the party nomination in the campaign for Utah’s fourth congressional district. Love is preparing to face incumbent Democratic Rep. Jim Matheson. Victory in November would make her the first black Republican congresswoman in history.
A Brooklyn-born Mormon convert, Love is a marathon-running mother of three and the daughter of Haitian immigrants who came to the United States with US$10 in their pockets, she says. Her mother cleaned houses and worked as a nurse at a retirement home while her father worked for a painting company, toiled as a janitor at a Catholic school and drove a school bus to support their growing family.
Love’s political career began when she was elected to the city council in the small town of Saratoga Springs, Utah, in 2004. She became mayor six years later and her House candidacy has received cash from an impressive list of Republican big wigs like House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Budget Chairman Paul Ryan and Majority Whip Kevin McCarthy.
Well aware that she is unique when lined up next to most Republicans in the caucus, Love doesn’t shy away from being a poster child for her party.